Ducks

VS. DALLAS Where: Honda Center. When: 7. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 830 Records: Ducks 3-3-1, Stars 3-2-3. Record vs. Stars (2008-09): 3-2-1. Update: Jean-Sebastien Giguere, one half of the Ducks' goaltending duo, left practice Tuesday because of an unspecified nagging injury but described it as "nothing too bad." The team was prepared to recall another goalie to back up Jonas Hiller tonight if needed. Scoring is more of a concern.

DALLAS - Nick Bonino has been a part of 28 comeback wins with the Ducks this season. Sunday night was the steepest - and most significant - yet. Bonino lifted the Ducks to a 5-4 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars as top-seeded Anaheim clinched a demanding first-round Western Conference playoff series, four games to two Bonino's goal, 2 minutes 47 seconds into sudden death, capped a rally from a two-goal deficit in the final 130 seconds of...

AT NASHVILLE When: 5 PST. Where: Sommet Center. On the air: TV: Channel 56; Radio: 830. Records: Ducks 18-19-7, Predators 26-15-3. Record vs. Predators: 1-1-0. Update: If this trip to Nashville and Chicago seems familiar, well, it is. The Ducks played road games against the same teams last weekend, losing to the Predators, 3-1, and to the Blackhawks, 5-2. Ducks forward Teemu Selanne's return from a broken hand will be a game-day decision.

DALLAS -- Ducks forward Matt Beleskey, who has missed four playoff games with a lower body injury, returned to skate Sunday morning and is expected to play tonight in Game 6 of the Western Conference first-round series. The Ducks, leading 3-2, can eliminate the Dallas Stars with a victory in the game that begins at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Beleskey had nine goals and 15 assists during the regular season, and, with 64 penalty minutes in season, he gives the Ducks another rugged body in what's been a physical series marked by 27 penalties in Anaheim's 6-2 Game 5 victory.

Ducks tonight VS. BOSTON When: 4:30 PST. Where: TD Garden. On the air: Versus. Records: Ducks 17-15-4, Bruins 17-10-4. Record vs. Bruins (2009-10): 2-0-0. Update: The Bruins ended a three-game skid Saturday night but couldn't have done it without Tim Thomas in net. He not only blocked 25 shots by the Washington Capitals in the third period, but stopped Alexander Ovechkin at point-blank range with 11 seconds left to preserve the Bruins' 3-2 victory.

DALLAS -- Lindy Ruff did an outstanding job in coaching the Stars to the playoffs for the first time since 2008, taking a team that's almost evenly split between veterans and kids and molding it into a competitive group that has pushed the top-seeded Ducks hard throughout the teams' first-round playoff series. For Ruff, who spent the previous 14-plus seasons coaching the Buffalo Sabres, the playoffs have provided a continuing education about his own team and his players' abilities and character.

DALLAS - Goaltender Jonas Hiller tried to make the best of the bad situation he had helped create through his shaky play in the last weeks of the regular season, but there were times uncertainty overtook him and despair crept in. He lost his starting job to rookie Frederik Andersen and for a while appeared to have dropped to third on the depth chart behind another rookie, John Gibson. He was the Ducks' forgotten man, left by the wayside as the Ducks forged to the top of the Western Conference and designated Andersen their playoff starter against the Dallas Stars.

DALLAS - It's taken them longer than they wanted, but the Ducks have found a formula to beat the fast, physical Dallas Stars. Now it's just a matter of proving it translates to the enemy ground of American Airlines Center. "You want to finish it here. That's our mind-set," Ducks forward Corey Perry said Saturday. Friday's 6-2 victory in Anaheim gave the Western Conference top-seeded Ducks a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series with Game 6 Sunday in Dallas, where both of the Ducks' losses have occurred.

DALLAS - The Ducks have been here before, and not just in the physical sense. Of course they've been to American Airlines Center, where they lost the third and fourth games of their playoff series against the Dallas Stars and surrendered the edge they'd earned by winning the first two games at home. But by overpowering Dallas, 6-2, at Honda Center on Friday, the Ducks took a 3-2 series lead and moved into position to close out the series Sunday. They've been there, too, needing a road win to wrap up a playoff series, but didn't do it. It was just last season.

DALLAS - Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said Saturday he wasn't surprised that the Washington Capitals - his previous employer - declined to renew the contract of general manager George McPhee and dismissed coach Adam Oates after the Capitals missed the playoffs this season. Boudreau worked for McPhee and coached the Capitals from 2007 until Nov. 28, 2011, when he was fired. Boudreau was hired by the Ducks two days later. Here's a link to the Washington Post's story on the departures of McPhee and Oates.

When David Campbell, a New Hampshire state representative from Nashua, drove the wrong way in a hotel driveway and ran over five ducks, he knew that he had a problem. He didn't know that the incident would leave him a dead duck politically. Campbell, who served 14 years in the state legislature, announced Wednesday he will not seek reelection. That came one day before the state attorney general released a scathing report of the events of Dec. 23, a night of eating and some drinking before the encounter with some ducks who lived in a pond in front of a hotel.

The Ducks knew they could count on home-ice advantage, not necessarily their power-play prowess. However, in a moment-of-truth Game 5 played before another standing-room-only crowd at Honda Center, they beat the Dallas Stars, 6-2, by setting a team playoff record with four power-play goals. Top-seeded Anaheim took a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference first-round series, with Game 6 Sunday in Texas. Ducks center and captain Ryan Getzlaf steadily gave the 17,334 in attendance reason to roar after missing Game 4 with an upper-body injury.

Sometimes, coaches make lineup decisions based on a gut feeling. When those decisions backfire, their gut feelings can become spasms of tension, anxiety, and early-playoff-exit regrets. Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau, fighting a reputation of being unable to lead talented teams in Washington and Anaheim deep into postseason play, made several decisions Friday that proved pivotal in the 6-2 victory that gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead over the Dallas Stars in the teams' opening-round playoff series.